The Nutcracker Suite, op. 71 a by Tchaikovsky, P. I., Frá (2021/2022), Hljómsveitarstjóri Pavel Klinichev, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia

The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky first saw the footlights at the Mariinsky Theatre on the 6th of December 1892, on the same evening as the opera Iolanta. The libretto, based on the fairy-tale by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann in a loose translation by Alexandre Dumas, was written by Marius Petipa. Director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky participated in the script development. The composer’s brother Modest Tchaikovsky gave the ideas its literary form and the choreography belonged to Lev Ivanov. In Moscow, the ballet was shown for the first time after the revolution, on the 21st of May 1919. Alexander Gorsky changed the original libretto and rearranged the music. A two-act ballet was turned into a three-act performance. In the second act, the little Clara (called Marie in the fairy-tale) enters a magical winter forest, where Father Christmases and snowflakes who look like Snow Maidens dance, dressed in smart fur coats. In the third act the action was taken to the table, enlarged to a gigantic size, with Christmas decorations and presents. In 1939, Vassily Vainonen transferred his version of The Nutcracker, realised in 1934 at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad, to the Bolshoi (on the Moscow stage the ballet was shown with some changes). The production by Vainonen remained in the repertoire until the 1960s. In 1966, it was replaced by a production by Yuri Grogorovich. Before Grigorovich’s version, the children’s parts in The Nutcracker were performed by students from the Academy of Choreography. Grigorovich gave them to artists. It allowed him to make the choreography of the children’s scenes more complex. The part of Marie is performed by a ballerina from the beginning to the end. The theme of growing up, the transition from childhood to youth is delivered through dance and not the substitution of a girl by an adult dancer. Formerly pantomime characters also started dancing – Drosselmeyer and the Mouse King. In Grigorovich’s hands the ballet gained a continuous storyline, linking both acts. The action is not interrupted by the fight between mice and soldiers. From that moment a new round of story begins: the journey of Marie and the Nutcracker Prince to the top of the Christmas tree. Along the way, the characters are accompanied by dolls who have come to life, crowding at the bottom of the tree, running between the branches of the Christmas tree, celebrating the victory over the Mouse King, and retreating only when the Nutcracker Prince and Marie reach the top – the Christmas tree star, against which their fabulous wedding is celebrated. The festive image of the performance was created by the co-author of Grigorovich, Simon Virsaladze. The new interpretation of the score was suggested by conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Over the decades of the ballet’s stage life, its various parts have been tried out by all the leading artists of the Bolshoi. However, the performers who were involved in its premiere remain in the history of this ballet, indissolubly linked with this performance: Ekaterina Maximova (Marie), Vladimir Vasiliev (the Nutcracker) and Vladimir Levashev (Drosselmeyer).